Is Arya The Lone Wolf Apart From The Stark Pack?

Last week’s episode of Game of Thrones saw Arya abandon her plan to head south to King’s Landing, and instead head home to Winterfell. Along the way, she briefly encounters her long-lost direwolf, Nymeria. While GoT’s showrunners and Maisie Williams have focused on what the scene reveals about Arya’s character, it also seems to hint at the road ahead for the youngest Stark sister in Season 7.

In a brief post-episode discussion accompanying the release of ‘Stormborn,’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss offer an explanation of the scene. Arya’s farewell line to her former pet, “That’s not you,” is a callback to Season 1, when Ned told her she could grow up to be the wife of a nobleman. While it would have been Sansa’s dream life at that point in the show, Arya’s not so charmed by this traditional path. “That’s not me,” she tells her father, wide-eyed but resolute. It’s after this exchange that Ned enlists Syrio Forel to teach Arya how to use a sword.

“Arya’s not domesticated and it makes total sense that her wolf wouldn’t be either. And once the wolf walks away, at first she’s heartbroken to have come this close,” said Weiss. “Then she realizes that the wolf is doing exactly what she would do.”

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Williams later echoed this reading of the scene in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Nymeria has created her own world and created her own pack and isn’t ready to be Arya’s pet. To be someone’s pet would reverse everything she’s learned. So they almost just regard each other and go their separate ways.”

Fair enough. That’s certainly part of what’s happening in this scene, but probably isn’t the whole story. Surely, there’s something bigger happening when wolves, the symbol of House Stark, turn their backs on Arya and walk away. There must be more to the Arya/Nymeria reunion than simply reminding viewers something they already know: the youngest Stark sister is unconventional and not suited to life as a courtly lady.

The episode’s writer, Bryan Cogman, offered an intruiging tweak on this explanation. He told EW, “Arya and Nymeria do and don’t have the connection they’ve always had. In the end, they’re both lone wolves. They can’t go back to the way things were. And that might be foreshadowing for Arya too.”

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This reference to foreshadowing and “lone wolves” has particular heft coming from Cogman. He’s been involved with Game of Thrones as a writer, story editor and producer going back to the pre-pilot days, and has since made a name for himself as a “lore-master” and “keeper of the mythos” behind the series. He knows better than just about anyone where these characters have been over the years, and presumably has a clear idea where they’re headed in the show’s final episodes.

But what could the brief reunion with Nymeria tell us about Arya’s future? She’s had her time on the wild side and now she’s going home to her family to fight White Walkers? Don’t be so sure. Yes, she’s headed back to Winterfell, where she’ll see Sansa and probably Bran. It’s not so clear that Jon will be back from Dragonstone in time, so we’re skeptical about a full Stark reunion happening in Season 7. If and when Jon and Arya do reunite, he’ll likely be thrilled to see his little sister. At first. That is, until he learns what went on at House Frey. Where the Season 7 premiere saw Jon forgive the Umbers and Karstarks for the treachery of their fathers, we saw Arya be merciless with the Freys. It might get him killed (again), but Jon has Ned Stark’s sense of honor. He would likely see the justice in killing Walder and his sons, but not in taking out the whole house.

We wouldn’t be surprised if the surviving Stark siblings, like Nymeria’s pack, take a sniff of Arya and realize she doesn’t belong with them anymore. In a trailer for Season 7, Sansa paraphrases a Season 1 family maxim of Ned’s: “the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” We don't know the context of that line yet, but don't be surprised if Arya’s not at Winterfell for long; maybe she continues to cross names off her kill list, maybe she makes a sacrifice to redeem herself in the eyes of her family. As much as we hate to say it, it’s seeming more and more likely that Arya won’t make it to the end of Game of Thrones. If there has to be a “lone wolf” who dies, what we've seen in the first two episodes of Season 7 make her the most likely candidate of the Starks thus far.

If you haven’t already, it’s worth checking out HBO’s brief behind-the-episode video for ‘Stormborn’ below.

What do you think Arya will get up to in the remaining episodes of Season 7? Feel free to talk all things Game of Thrones in the comments.